Need some strange and weird in your world? Arcana of the Ancients Review

Am I the only one that just gets different RPG books, not intended to play them all? Don't answer that - I've seen social media. If you answered "Yes", then chances are you're a liar. I've seen tons of pictures of shelves full of RPG books - there is no way you people are playing all of those books. More than likely, you are like me and like reading different books and systems because you use them for ideas for your own games. Monsters, items, stories, etc. - there is tons of good content out there to enrich your RPG games, no matter what system you are using. For instance, we use the "slots" method of initiative from the FFG/Edge Star Wars games in our D&D5e games.

From 2016 to 2019 or so, I was enamered with Monte Cook Games. Actually, that's a lie, I'm still enamered with them. They make wonderful RPG books and products, and for several years I would run various Cypher System games at cons to lots of different people. In fact, I would take my Cypher System Core Rulebook and make people who played in games with me sign the inside cover as if it was a yearbook in grade school. The Cypher System was great for GMs like me who enjoy taking a core framework of an adventure and then filling it out on the fly. Specifically, taking the same framework and running it a couple of times at cons and seeing how different groups took the games in much different directions.

These days, things are a bit different. Unfortunatly, most of my RPG group are not as into the Cypher System as I was. I've found that as great as it can be, there are a lot of people that get turned off to the system for various reasons. Also, back then I had the disposable income to back most of their Kickstarters. Now, with a kiddo in college that I play Warhammer 40k, I have to be more selective with my dollars. Before that, I backed a little Kickstarter called "Arcana of the Ancients" in 2019.

2019? Um, why are you reviewing a book almost half a decade old?

Honestly, because I just now got around to reading it. Since I paid my own money for it, it sat on my "to read" shelf for years while I worked through various review copies of games. I still have a few on my shelf, but I finally decided to get this book off the shelf and read through it. The basic premise is that Arcana of the Ancients is a book that lets you play Numenera in D&D5e. See, Monte Cook Games realized that, while they had years of very successful Kickstarters, there was a large group of people that weren't checking out their Kickstarters because they weren't "5e compatible".

While "everyone" would prefer that other games get more love and attention, the real fact of the matter is that at this current time, D&D5e has a *considerable* margin on every other RPG out there. A fair portion of those gamers prefer to keep their groups in that 5e ecosystem. Most of the time, its because "people don't want to learn new game systems", which sounds crazy but it's definitely something I've seen with my own eyes. People get "tired" of the D&D setting easily enough, but there's something comforting about the 5e system that makes it inviting to people to try. Take a look at all the "5e but not D&D" games games going on at Gen Con and see how many are sold out compared to other indie games.

Back to Arcana of the Ancients

Now that we've spent half the post establishing why this book exists, lets get back to what the book actually is. For those that aren't familiar with Monte Cook Games, Numenera was their first game and the first to use the "Cypher System". Basically, there have been 8 different societies that have risen and fallen. You live in the 9th world, which is basically a million years in the future. The world is a Mad Max style trash bin of all those different societies. "Cyphers", the term for all the various bits of tech that are scattered among the world, are wonders that characters use to achieve special feats. Although, there's no telling what the Cyphers were originally intended to do, so sometimes chaos ensues.

At about 300 pages, Arcana of the Ancients is essentially a bestiary, a book of magic items, and an adventure rolled in together. The first part of the book, "The Hills of Crooked Sleep", is an adventure that hand holds you as you begin to introduce the type of world Numenera is and its crazy Cyphers. It doesn't directly mention Numenera, but anyone familiar with the game will recognize bits in this adventure. The Hills of Crooked Sleep gives you a hook to then have Cyphers become scattered across the world of your 5e game without it being a shark-jumping moment.

Aside from a section providing advice to DMs, the remainder of the book is chock full of things to throw into your 5e games. For instance, you could have your players come across a "Matter Evaporator" that basically looks like the proton pack from Ghostbusters (see the description in the pic below and tell me I'm wrong). The best part about these Cyphers is that they are one time use items, so even though most of them are extremely overpowered, players can't keep using them over and over. Also, when players horde a lot of Cyphers together, bad stuff can happen, so it helps encourage players to use them and not hang onto them forever.

Do you have players that are too acustomed to the monsters in the "standard" 5e manuals? Well, throw in a DREAD DESTROYER. Nothing says PCs are doomed like the words "Dread Destroyer". Players have magic items and bows? Well, have them avoid being electrocuted and avoid being SHOT BY A MISSILE from the Dread Destroyer. I think I've made my point.

Suddenly, one off overpowered items don't seem so bad anymore.

A Whole New World

When I originally backed this book, I was expecting it to be tied more into the Numenera setting. Bascially, a Numenera core rulebook for 5e, or maybe even a sourcebook. However, it is probably better that it isn't that. This allows 5e DMs to add a little or a lot of weirdness to their games without fundamentally changing the worlds in which they are set in. By using the premise of "The Ancients", it gives a reason why these oddities haven't been seen before and just suddenly started popping up in the world.

Also, Monte Cook Games needs to give courses in RPG book design. As standard with the rest of their books, there will be notes in the margins to provide more information or page numbers to topics that will be covered later. The whole entire book is color coded so that you can easily flip to the appropriate section. Need a new Cypher? Flip to the brown section of the book and now you are in the alphabetical listing of different items. Plus, as is typical, the artwork is simply fantastic.

The biggest "gripe" I have with the book isn't so much of a negative and more of a missed opportunity. Monte Cook Games have books on books of different creatures, items, etc. that they've published to use with their Cypher System. I was hoping maybe there would be a type of conversion system in the book so that you could bring in those books and use them in your 5e games. You could probably use the cyphers in this book as a template for how to take other content and make it 5e-able, but that still requires some creative work on the DM.

In Conclusion

1. This book is great! Especially if you want to add some science fantasy to your D&D games.

2. I could see this being paired with a custom Spelljammer campaign *really* easily.

3. Boards & Swords is not responsible if you end up getting this book and going on a deep dive buying a bunch of other Monte Cook Games content because it's all so good.